Games and demos for the Commodore 64! Can they be played on my PC? Absolutely! What do I need to run them? A game or a demo and an emulator. For the PC, there's two really good ones. VICE is the one I use and recommend, but there's also CCS that's really good. For the Macintosh, Power 64 is the only choice. How do I download a game or a demo from your site? Use the search engine to find the game or demo you're looking for. In the same engine, you can also search for all the productions that i.e. Bob Stevenson has done graphics for. Just put his name in there, click in the check box and hit seek. When the result is displayed, click on any game or demo to read more about it. Then click on the download text and save it on to your computer. All the games and demos are zipped, so you need Winzip for the PC or StuffIt Expander if you're on the Macintosh. How do I run the game or the demo in the emulator? VICE: Start the emulator. Press ALT and 8 and locate the file on your computer. Click on the file once and look in the image contents window in the lower left corner. Locate the game or the demo and double click on it to load. CCS64: Start the emulator. Press F9 and choose 1541 Device 8. Locate the game or demofile on your computer, choose the game or demo by pressing Enter while standing on it. Power 64: Start the emulator. Go to Devices > Disk Drive #8 > Insert Floppy Disk, or press Command and D. Double click on the disc image that you want to insert in to the device. In the window that pops up, locate the game or the demo and double click on it to load. If the game or demo has more than one disc, it's recommended to insert the other images before you start. This is also done under the devices menu. When a game or demo asks for side two, what am I supposed to do? VICE: Press ALT and 8 and locate the second file on your computer. Simply double click on it and the second file, or side B if you will, has been inserted. CCS64: Press F9 and then the left arrow key to go back to the directory where your game or demofiles are. Move to the disc you need to insert and press F4 to choose it. Power 64: If the program you want to start has two or more disc images, insert all images before you run it. How do I play games that require a joystick? C64 emulators let you use your PC keyboard as if it was a C64 joystick. VICE: When you run VICE with the default setup, the joystick in port 2 is controlled with the numeric keypad keys 2, 4, 6, 8, and the Fire button is your rightmost Ctrl key. When you press these keys successfully, you see little red and green lights turn on and off at the bottom of the VICE window. Some games only react to the joystick in port 1. Choose from the VICE menu Options > Swap Joystick (or Alt-J as a shortcut) to change the joystick port. Then the same numeric keypad keys control the joystick in port 1 instead. If you are using a laptop or you don't have the numeric keypad for some other reason, you can change the keys that control the joystick from the VICE menu Settings > Joystick settings... From there you can choose Keyset A for Joystick in port #2, and then click the button Config Keyset A, and set some other keys for the joystick. CCS64: To setup your keyboard to work as a joystick, do as follows. Press F10 to enter the menus. Choose Options... > Input.... Usually games use the joystick port 2, so set the Control Port 2 to show Joystick and the Mode to show for example Key-Set 2. Make sure that Key-Set 2 is configured properly by choosing Define Joystick Keyset... and choosing keyset 2. Where can I find special keys of the C64 keyboard? VICE: The default keymap is positional, which means that the keys on the C64 keyboard are found in the same geometric location on your own computer's keyboard. For example, on a usual PC keyboard, Commodore = Left Ctrl, Run Stop = Esc, £ = Insert, Up Arrow = Delete, and Ctrl = Tab. CCS64: Versions 3.x of CCS64 include a keyboard chart named "CCS64 Keyboard Layout.pdf". You can find it in the folder where the emulator was installed (the default is "C:\Program Files\Computerbrains\CCS64 V3.x"). Some important keys are Commodore = Left Ctrl, and Run Stop = Esc. How can I use my non-C64 joystick for playing C64 games? Before using your joystick in an emulator, you of course first have to install the joystick to work in your computer. But this you probably have done already. VICE: While running VICE, choose from the menus Settings > Joystick settings.... You should be able to select your joystick in the port #1 and port #2 dropboxes. Don't forget to also calibrate your joystick in the VICE settings. CCS64: When running CCS64, press Alt-I to enter the Input menu. For Control Port 1 or 2, choose the Mode to be PC Gameport 1 or 2, depending on where you have plugged your PC joystick. Remember to calibrate your joystick. Aren't the games still copyrighted? They are, but most companies don't mind their old games being spread as long as you don't make money of them. Will you mail me the game or the demo that I have requested? No, you'll have to check back on the site a few days later, but we promise to search for your request ASAP so you don't have to wait forever. Can I download all the files from an FTP server somewhere? No, that is not possible because the server couldn't handle it. What do I need to transfer my games and demos from my C64? You need a cable between your C64 disc drive and your PC. Joe Forster can help you with this. You also need a program that handles the actual transfer of the games. Star Commander is superb for this. How about a utilities section? After all, it was a big part of the C64 history. This is our hobby and we do all this in our spare time, so there isn't much time left at the moment. But absolutely, when we find the right person to help out, it will be here. I want to help out with the site. What shall I do? Send an e-mail and tell us what you want to work with and what your skills lies in, i.e. interviews, screenshots or general writing. If you still haven't found the answer you were looking for, please send a mail to andreas.wallstrom @ gmail.com.

» F.A.Q. - look here before you send off an email. » Credits - the list of people who made all this possible. » Links - to the top C64 sites out there. » Scene interviews - C64 sceners answer 20 questions about their time in the scene.